Agenda Item 4 MTS Draft (To Annual CPR) Final 1009.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
United Nations UNEP/ASC.7/2 United Nations Environment Assembly of the United Nations Environment Programme Annual subcommittee meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives to the United Nations Environment Programme Seventh meeting Nairobi, 12-16 October 2020 Online meeting 1.00 pm – 6.00 pm (GMT+3) Agenda Item 4: Consideration of a draft UNEP Medium-Term Strategy 2022-2025 and Programme of Work 2022-2023 This note serves as one of four supporting documents for agenda item 4, “Consideration of a draft UNEP Medium-Term Strategy 2022-2025 and Programme of Work 2022-2023.” The present document includes the second draft of UNEP’s Medium Term Strategy (MTS) for 2022-2025 for further review and guidance, following the consideration of the draft at the 151st meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives of 14 July 2020. The Programme of Work and Budget 2022-2023 will, in its final iteration, be annexed to the MTS, and will be presented separately in document UNEP/ASC.7/2/Add.1. In line with the guidance provide by the Bureau of the Committee of Permanent Representatives, and taking into account the change of dates for the review of the MTS from 3 September to 14 September, and to respect as much as possible the timelines for document submission before the 7th Annual CPR Subcommittee, the Secretariat presents the same draft MTS considered before the 151st meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives. This draft MTS is also accompanied by document UNEP/ASC.7/2/Add.2, consisting of a comprehensive summary of the guidance received from member States during the 151st meeting of the CPR, including comments received in writing up to 21 September. The Secretariat will address these comments in the final iteration of the draft MTS, in addition to incorporating any guidance that may be received during the 7th Annual Subcommittee meeting of the CPR. Furthermore, the draft MTS will be complemented by document UNEP/ASC.7/2/Add.3 - a summary report of the ‘Discovery’ sessions organized by the Secretariat with Major Groups and Stakeholders, Children and Youth, Faith-Based Organizations and the private sector to seek their views and inputs for the development of the MTS. Draft 22/09/2020 UNEP Medium-Term Strategy 2022-2025 and Programme of Work and Budget for 2022-2023 Table of Contents UNEP Medium-Term Strategy 2022-2025 and Programme of Work and Budget for 2022- 2023............................................................................................................................................ 1 1) Background ........................................................................................................................ 3 2) Situation Analysis: Unsustainable Consumption and Production is Overburdening the Earth’s Resources. .................................................................................................................. 4 Building on the Past for Higher Performance in the Future -- Lessons Learned ............. 11 3) A Medium-term Strategy for the Decade of Action ........................................................ 13 UNEP’s Vision for Agenda 2030 -- 2025 takes us halfway there .................................... 13 4) UNEP’s focus: Thematic, Foundational and Enabling programmes for increased ambition ................................................................................................................................ 16 Figure 1: UNEP’s Medium-term Strategy for 2022-2025 – on the road to 2030 ................ 18 I) Thematic Subprogrammes ............................................................................................ 18 Climate Action .................................................................................................................. 18 Nature Action ................................................................................................................... 22 Chemical and Pollution Action ......................................................................................... 26 II) Foundational Subprogrammes ..................................................................................... 30 Science-Policy .................................................................................................................. 30 Environmental Governance .............................................................................................. 33 III) Enabling Subprogrammes .......................................................................................... 36 Finance and Economic Transformations .......................................................................... 36 Digital Transformations .................................................................................................... 39 5) Four Levers of Change for Better Delivery ..................................................................... 42 6) Looking Forward: Driving the change towards the future we want ................................ 45 2 Draft 22/09/2020 1) Background “With only 10 years left before the 2030 deadline, there is an urgent need to step up action. And every nation, every community and every person can and must make a contribution.” - UN Secretary General António Guterres UNEP was established in 1972 against the background of a series of scientific reports on the degrading state of the world environment. The Stockholm Conference gave science a platform that enabled world leaders to converge on the need to cooperate to tackle the most pressing environmental problems of their time. As a result, UNEP was tasked with coordinating global responses for the environment, within and outside the United Nations, while keeping the state of the world environment in check, linking science to policymaking.1 Today, the world finds itself in a similar situation, but the state of the environment has worsened. Science is pointing to three environmental crises: climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, which are putting us at risk of irreversibly changing our relationship with the natural world and how we benefit from it. These crises are directly linked to current unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, which were recognized at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 as “the major cause of the continued deterioration of the global environment”.2 While an overwhelming evidence exists for this,3 the scale and pace of a global response to these three challenges is not where it should be. Collectively, we are off-track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, especially the environment-related ones, that will enable us to achieve the aspirations of Agenda 2030.4 Nevertheless, the importance of linking science to policy and decision-making remains stronger than ever, but science alone is not enough. Science underpins solutions and actions that can chart a transformational path in the way we live, work and relate to nature. Yet only when sustained by strong environmental governance can science be the foundation of a catalytic response to the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. To enable a global transformation at the pace and scale required, science must inform and drive financial economic and behavioural shifts towards more sustainable consumption and production patterns, all while harnessing the digital revolution as a strategic asset for more inclusive, transparent and innovative outcomes. This strategy sets out a vision for UNEP to meet current and future expectations, while continuing to deliver on the promises made to Member States in 2012 through the Rio+20 Conference and its Outcome Document “The future we want.”5 Under this lens, this Strategy describes UNEP’s future trajectory for the period 2022-2025, while outlining the organization’s contribution to Agenda 2030 as the direction of travel towards a global 2050 vision of planetary sustainability. 1 UNEP was established by the United Nations General Assembly following the Stockholm Conference by resolution 2997 (XXVII) of 15 December 1972, https://undocs.org/en/a/res/2997(XXVII) 2 Agenda 21, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, June 1992. 3 The situation analysis in this document provides thorough evidence of the deteriorating state of the world environment, pointing to the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution driven by unsustainable consumption and production patterns. 4 Measuring Progress: Towards Achieving the Environmental Dimension of the SDGs, published by UNEP in 2019, revealed that “of the 93 environment-related SDGs indicators, there are 22 (23 per cent) for which good progress has been made over the last 15 years. For the other 77 per cent of the environment-related SDGs indicators, there is either insufficient data to assess progress (68 per cent) or it is unlikely that the target will be met without upscaling action (9 per cent). 5 UN Conference on Sustainable Development, The future we want (A/CONF.216/L.1), 19 June 2012, https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/13662/N1238164.pdf 3 Draft 22/09/2020 Through this strategy, UNEP places the three environmental challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution at the heart of its work and it will tackle them through transformative multi-stakeholder actions that target their root causes and drivers, delivering deeper and broader impact. Through deploying a supporting system of foundational actions, UNEP will ensure that the science remains at the centre of all decisions, and that global environmental